Never Boring Papa Provine

It's been a while since I blogged, but Papa Provine (my Dad, though the girls have started calling him "Provine"... just the one word sounds awful) has kept me on my toes. Monday, I took him to the opthamologist. He has glaucoma, and has lost about 50% of his cornea because his eye is trying to reject his left lens implant. The eye doc gave us some drops to start immediately, and he wanted me to get some blood test run. His problem is where the white/grey color is around the edges of the "brown" part. The brown part of the left (see below) is gone all the way to the (black) where you see the iris. BAD!Got up Wednesday and he's limping, says his left foot hurts. Okay, I pull the shoes and socks off, and his left foot is swollen and tender to the touch. It's not hot, so I'm not suspecting a blood clot. I call the regular doctor, Dr. Moolamalla, and she says to bring him in right away. She is in McKinney, off the White exit, so it's a bit of a ways to drive. We both LOVE Dr. Moolamalla, so we don't mind going there. Get there and she checks for bloodclot... not one (see, I told you so), then she sends us off to get an x-ray.

While getting the x-ray, they have him turn his leg a certain way, and his hip starts throbbing. No, I am not making any of this up. We walk out of the x-ray place to go back to the doctor, and his head hurts as soon as we get outside. This time, he makes me promise not to tell the doctor about his hip or head and we both laugh. Damn, that's all you can do when it's always something. Dr. Moolamalla diagnoses him with what she "thinks" is a stress fracture and refers me to see a podiatrist. She and I both like Dr. Schechter. I go back to check out the x-ray, and nooooo, I have to come back tomorrow. They don't ever check out the original, only copies.

Today, Thursday, I take Dad to the foot doctor, Dr. Schechter, in Allen. He diagnoses Dad with a stress fracture of the 3rd metatarsal bone (sometimes called a 'march fracture' because soldiers running in boots often get it). Now, he doesn't march, run, etc., so I have no idea how he did it. Sometimes just walking differently (like in new shoes, or after you've maybe stubbed your toe) for an extended time can cause them.

The doctor was afraid to put him in a boot, or any type of cast because he has gotten to where he frequently "shuffles" instead of lifting his foot. The solution? A custom orthodic insert created while we waited. Dad had on some tennis shoes, but they weren't made for orthodics, so we went shopping.

Stopped at Sports Academy to check out their shoes. I decided on New Balance because that's what I get. It took trying on only six pairs to get one that he could get his foot into. I measured his foot as a 9 in length, but his arch is a 9 1/2. His foot measures as an A, which is narrow. I now know where I got my skinny feet. His main problem in getting shoes to fit is he has a very, VERY high arch. None of the 10 medium shoes fit... they are just too narrow to get his high arch into. Once we do, they're too tight across the arch, but fine everywhere else. I got some wides, and voila! Perfect fit because of the way New Balance does the lacing system. I showed Dad how we could lace the top and get a perfect fit. The orthodics fit perfectly, and as soon as he put the shoes on, his foot quit hurting.

Healing time is 6-8 weeks. We go back to check on it in a month. I'm going to have him in those shoes for a month.... so help me! Also, I had him try a pair of diabetic socks with silver woven into the material, and they're over the calf. He loves them. They make his feet feel warmer than his "nylon" socks.

The day ended on a good note..... Gary got take out for supper.